Blog Posts for CMU Journalism Classes

Women of CMU 6. Katie Rae

Big Rapids senior Katie Rae poses for a portrait in the Bovee University Center on the campus of Central Michigan University, Sunday, March 19, 2017. “To me, a feminist is an empowered woman. A woman that is got a fire under herself to make the world into a better place, a better version of how she sees it. Create herself into a better version each and every day, striving to create a better world,” explains Katie Rae

Meet Big Rapids senior, Katie Rae. I have the pleasure of working with Kaite Rae in Saxe hall and knowing her for 2 years. Katie is an inspiring woman and someone I look up to, which makes me so excited to spotlight her in this campaign.

Katie has been involved in a variety of organizations here at CMU since she was a freshman. She is a Leader Advancement Scholar, she was the Vice President of Breaking the Silence: a suicide prevention RSO, she is actively involved in Alternative Breaks having been on 6 trips and sighting leading 2 of those, she is a Resident Assistant in Saxe Hall (with me), before Reslife she was a Leadership Safari guide for 2 years, she is a mentor through College 101: an organization that helps “at-risk” students find possibilities in higher education, she is a desk associate in the Residential Halls, and she is a life group/bible study leader with His House Christian Fellowship.

“Through the Leader Advancement Scholarship, I am a mentor. So each cohort gets to have a mentee in the cohort below you. I get to be the mentor to a girl named Amanda Yats, she is one of my favorite human beings on this campus, and it was really cool opportunity to really shape and help someone else’s college experience…College 101, I get to be a mentor with that as well, with high school students who are labeled at risk. I get to be a person who looks at them in a different light. I get to look at them as a person that matters and I have no pre-conceived ideas of who they are. I am a free, unbiased face to them; just asking them what they are passionate about, what their goals are, and how I can help them get to college,” Katie explains.

Katie connects extremely well with those she mentors, but also with those she meets in her involvements or in her everyday life. She sets a spark in people and encourages them to find themselves. She event impacted a student with College 101 and she states her conversations with him was great because she “got to see a fire in his eyes and a spark within him that he wanted to pursue college. It was a different view that he’s ever had because he was never talked to in the way that I talked to him.”

In addition, Katie is actively involved in social justice issues. Through all of her Alternative Breaks, she has helped with historical preservation, suicide prevention with the Trevor Project: a suicide hotline for the LGBTQ community, hunger and homeless, adult special education, substance abuse with Harvest Farms, and lastly, working with the elderly. Katie could talk your ear off about her ABs, but the ones that made the most impact was the one involving substance abuse. Harvest Farms is run by The Denver Rescue Mission. Katie is now applying and trying for an internship with this organization to continue her passion that she found from her experiences.

“I have a huge heart and a huge passion for helping others in general, so there isn’t a specific issue that I am more passionate about because if I am helping in any I am having the time of my life,” Katie states.

Katie is an empowered woman and doesn’t rub it in your face, you can just feel it. She has a fire of her own and is truly going for a career in her passion of helping others. Katie 100% fits in not only my 5-pillar definition of feminism but any definition of feminism. She is proud, encouraging, outspoken, an advocate and so much more.

“We need to (spotlight empowered women) because we are an under-represented group. More women are graduating from colleges than men are right now and there are more women with leadership roles on campuses all over the world right now. That is under-recognized because, if you are looking at CEOs it is still men. I don’t know if that is a generation gap or if we get to that point as women and don’t feel that empowerment anymore to go above our typical expectations. It is super important (to recognize women) because women have huge hearts, and men have huge hearts too, but as women, as caretaker, we are very compassionate and I feel as though our world has been lacking that lately.So I think it is really important to empower women and to be an empowered woman in this society so that we can have a society of love, compassion and treating people as people,” Katie explains.

Thank you,Katie for focusing your energy on empowerment. You are a huge impact on this campus and you have helped so many. Continue to put your stamp on this world.

Big Rapids senior Katie Rae poses for a portrait in the Bovee University Center on the campus of Central Michigan University, Sunday, March 19, 2017.